Orioles hope to hire pitching coach 'before the end of the month,' Dan Duquette says

The Orioles’ process of hiring a new pitching coach is winding down, according to the club’s top executive, with the hope of having someone in place by next week.

“We have a little more work to do on our due diligence; we want to make the best choice in our job search,” Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said. “We have some well-qualified candidates, and we should be able to have a top quality coach on our staff before it’s over. … We’d like to get it done before the end of the month.”

Hawkins is the only candidate without extensive experience as a pitching coach, but he held the role on an interim basis in 2008 and has spent the past five years in charge of a Rangers bullpen that twice played in the World Series.

Duquette said that several in-house candidates are under consideration — that would include current pitching coach Bill Castro, who had been the club’s bullpen coach before taking over in August when Adair was granted a leave of absence for personal reasons.

But Duquette said interviewing internal candidates was not a necessity.

“I don’t know if we are going to formally interview them,” Duquette said. “We have a good feel for the strength of the internal candidates. Obviously, we have been working with them for some time.”